The Last Dead Flower
by The Knave of Northland
Summary: Summary: "I remember when I crushed the last dead flower for my dear niece, and how destroying it was when I shut out her - no, their - voices." Won third place in Starvation's October one-shot challenge. Prompt: Fallen and Forgotten.


**This was written for Starvation's October one-shot challenge. Prompt: "Fallen and Forgotten." And it won third-place! It was on my old account so I moved it to this one.**

* * *

The murky water is so cold, but I silently slip into it anyways. After letting myself go, I became what the Capitol wanted: a monster. Forget about telling myself that I could be in control, this is the only way I'll come out alive. This ambush will work, it has to. I don't have much time left before he gets here, but it's the only chance I've got. One of us is about to die.

As I lower myself into the shallow water, I make sure the mud is still mixed into my red hair, camouflaging it from my enemy. I scoop up some mud from the river bank and cover the top half of my face with it as I walk a couple feet up the shallow end of the river. Footsteps reach my ears and I pull my knife out of my pocket. Now is the time.

I sink to my knees in the water, so that only the park of my face covered in mud peaks out. I added some rocks and grass to the top to look like a patch of mud high enough to peek out of the water. I hold my breathe and then submerge my nose, to look more inconspicuous.

And there he is: Calvin Kord, son of a victor from District 5. He tried to kill me once, he won't do it again. He stops when he reaches the river bank and scans the landscape for me. Too bad for him that I picked up camouflage fast. Calvin slowly walks down to the bank of the small river, dangerously close to me. He looks both ways, behind him, and in front of him to make sure that I'm gone. Then he crouches down and pulls out a water bottle, preparing to dip it into the river.

Now!

I push off against the muddy river bottom and propel myself into the unsuspecting Calvin. He screams as I shove him to the ground. Thank goodness I destroyed that sword of his last night. "Where's your sword, Five?" I spit, "Not so big and tough without a weapon, eh?"

"Six, please, you know I didn't have a choice!" He gasps.

I twist my mouth into a smirk. He may be a victor's son, but he's a coward at heart, "Oh really? Well, I don't have a choice either."

A split second later, he half gasps-half shrieks as my knife is buried into his chest. His canon goes off and I stand up, shaking the mud out of my hair like a wet dog. Rain begins to fall, washing it out of my hair and all down my arms, back, and shirt. It clings to my face, leaving dirty marks all over it.

Then my face falls. I truly am a Capitol monster.

* * *

"Auntie! Auntie, what's wrong?" Nellie cries, pounding on the door.

But I ignore her and keep screaming as long as my lungs let me. That dream, it keeps haunting me. That, and the terrible looks Calvin's father gave me three years ago on the victory tour. They'll never be left out of my mind, ever. Nellie keeps hitting the door and trying to open it, but I lock it every night. I've never been more paranoid in my life. Ever since my victory, I've begun to fall, and with all the tragedies that have come up...

"Auntie Aurora!" She gives a terrified cry.

"Enough! Leave me alone! Leave me alone!" I sob into my pillow, blocking out the memories of my dream. I'm not yelling at my niece, I'm yelling at the figures in my nightmares.

"Please let me in, Auntie," Her voice becomes less urgent.

As my hysterics finally begin to ebb away, I get up and unlock the door for my niece. She walks in, and I see that her face is streaked with tears. She gives me a hug, "It's gonna be okay, Auntie, nobody's gonna hurt you anymore."

I pat her head, "I know, Nellie, I know that."

"Then why were you screaming?"

I kneel down beside the little seven year old. The poor girl was four when I entered the games, and once she figure out her "Auntie" was going to have to kill or be killed, she grew up fast. Nellie's the only family I have left now. I give her a quick hug, "Everything's okay now, Nellie, you can go back to bed."

"You sure?"

"I'm positive, now go on."

She gives me a hug in return and walks out the door. This time I don't ask her to lock it. Things get worse as time goes on, how bad will it be in five to ten years?

* * *

"Auntie, I'm home!" Nellie's joyful crow reaches me ears and I look up from my easel.

I'm situated in the garden with my big floppy sunhat, a gift from Nellie's teacher, sitting on top of my head. She comes running up to me, her ratty book sack strapped to her back as she jumps over a patch of rhubarb. "Watch the plants, Nellie, unless you don't want rhubarb pie," I laugh, setting down my paintbrush.

"What are you painting?" She looks over my back at my easel.

"I'm painting some snapdragons for Tansy for her birthday."

At the mention of the victor's name, Nellie looks up at the house across from mine where Tansy is sitting on the porch, playing around with the phone the Capitol installed into her house. It's a miracle the cord can reach that far. "She's gonna like that! Can I help?"

I pick up my jar of sickly pink water and hand it to her, "You can dump out this water and pour some more for me if you want."

"Okay!"

As she turns to go back into the house, she pulls something out of her book sack. "Here, these are for you! They were growing in the town square. I picked them while I was walking back from school with Minerva."

Nellie gives me a handful of five light pink flowers and then scuttles inside. Five. I'm reminded of Calvin from the fifth district, but he quickly slips out of my mind as something else replaces him. I slowly separate two flowers and hold them up to the sun.

A flower for my father and a flower for my mother, who died in a fire as I was returning from the Capitol. I remember stepping off the train into the station and Steel, his wife, and my sister Freesia ran up to me with the sickening news. I never got to hug my parents again. I never got to see or hear Father play his fiddle again. I never got to smell my mother making cherry pie and humming the entire time again. I felt like someone had kicked me in my stomach.

I separate another flower, this time for Freesia. My willowy fifteen year old sister, she was such a good dancer and singer. But there was a case of "mistaken identity" when she was shot by a peacekeeper. They say that they thought she was someone else, a criminal. But there hadn't been any cases of crimes worth killing a criminal reported all year. Steel and I didn't speak for two weeks. His wife cooked for us and Nellie tried to cheer us up with her childish games, but we just sat on the couches in my house in the Victor's Village, staring at the walls. After Freesia's murder, Steel moved his family into my house, thinking they were safe.

And then there are two flowers left, and they're for Steel, my strong older brother, and his wife. I was trying to teach Nellie how to play a pick-up-sticks a year after we lost my sister. Then I got a phone call from my neighbor and mentor, Track Goodwin, telling me that the train Steel was driving and his wife was a steward on had crashed. It was Nellie's turn to be speechless. I thought I had it hard losing my family, but she's just a child. I saw how sad she became, and I wouldn't wish a family death on anyone. The government tried putting Nellie in the Community Home, but I wouldn't let them. She's lived with me ever since.

"Auntie!" Her cries reach my ears and shake me out of my dark memory.

I look up and watch her pick something up from the path. She hurries back over to me and hands me a jar of clean water and, hauntingly, another pink flower. "I dropped one of the flowers, here you go."

Six. There are six flowers now. And the last one is for Nellie. But she's still alive...

* * *

A few weeks later, I lounge in my living room, waiting for Nellie to get back from school. It's almost too quiet when she's gone. I heard an explosion earlier, but it came from the tracks, and Nellie knows to stay away from them. I look up at my shelf at the big book that I put her flowers in. I'm going to press them and preserve them. Keeping flowers in books is kind of fun. I was just flipping through a book last night and an old petunia fell out from the pages, still looking as bright as it did when I picked it, albeit with a papery texture and being flat.

Now that I think about it, the quiet is kind of nice. Nellie was pretty upset last night, she saw the picture of her family I keep in my room. I never showed it to her, because I was afraid it would upset her. I was wrong, and she got mad that I was hiding it. I've never seen a seven year old so upset. She even went to school with a sullen attitude.

I'll apologize to her tonight, I guess I owe her one after all. She may be young, but she isn't as fragile as I thought her to be. A sudden urgent beating on the door makes me jump about six inches and I quickly stand up. What on earth is going on; that can't be Nellie, can it?

The door creaks as I open it and both Track and Tansy, the only victors in District 6 besides me, are standing on the porch, heads bowed. "Track? Track, what is it?" I gasp.

I recognize the expression on his face; the last time I saw it was when he admitted to using morphling. It makes him look about thirty, though he's only two years older than me. Track opens his mouth to speak, but Tansy talks first, "We-we need to talk. You need to sit down."

A sick feeling settles in my stomach as the three of us sit down in the living room. "It's Nellie..." Track finally says.

"What happened?"

"There-there was an accident by the train tracks."

Before he can say anything else, I've shot out the back door and down the hill the Victor's Village sits on. What was she doing by the train tracks, she knows not to play around them! A plume of smoke curls into the sky about two miles away. I tear down the streets, shoving people aside and jumping over anything that gets in my way. People are surprised to see me, I usually don't leave the Victor's Village. And even then, they've never liked me very much, even before I went into the games. I guess they kind of forgot about me.

I finally reach the tracks and I sink to my knees. A train lays on its side off the tracks, crashed into a building with flaming debris scattered everywhere. As I watch the peacekeepers and citizens try to put the fire out, I see medics swarming around the area. Nellie always walks home with a group of friends, they probably dared her to get close to the tracks or something like that. I force myself to stand up and walk forward. "Let me through!" I bellow, something I haven't done since my games.

A peacekeeper tries to stop me, but I shove him out of the way. "Aurora, stop! Stop it!" Track's voice reaches my ears and he and Tansy catch up to me.

They pull me back from the inferno and begin to mourn with me. But I know this wasn't an accident. When my parents died, I thought that was an accident. When Freesia was killed, I began to grow suspicious. When Steel and his wife died in the train accident, I was sure this was all planned. Now Nellie is gone, too. The Capitol got her close to the tracks somehow, I just know it. "Let me go!" I howl, trying to pull away from Track and Tansy.

"This is for your own good, ma'am," A voice says behind me.

* * *

I turn my head and see a peacekeeper pointing his gun at me. I guess it's my time now, too. I hear a shot, and I look down and see something sticking out of my arm. I haven't been shot, they're sedating me. I fall to the ground, knowing that now I'm completely alone.

I walk off the stage after my interview with Caesar Flickerman, my shimmery green dress swishing as I move. "Track? Tansy?" I frown once I enter a hallway, where did they go? "Rhea? Mars?" My escort and stylist aren't there, either.

"Miss Aurora Gray, there you are," I voice says from behind me.

I jump and turn around, finding myself facing President Snow of all people. The little hairs on the back of my neck stand up and my heart begins to race. Did I do something wrong? "Miss Gray, I need to speak with you," He says, "Are you aware that there are people here in the Capitol, rich people, who-,"

"No."

"Excuse me?"

"I said no. I'm positive it isn't worth the money."

"There can be consequences, my dear."

"I-I don't care."

I stalk off, appalled by the things he tries to make the victor do. What are the consequences, no phone installed into the house? No luxuries? I've lived without them before, I can keep living without them. Track told me that they would ask me that, and to say "no." But I don't think he knew that there would be consequences to saying it. I hope it's nothing too bad.

* * *

I wake up in my bed, my arm sore from whatever they shot me with. I haven't shown my face in public all year, and I know seeing me in hysterics is probably a strange sight. The inferno flashes before my eyes again, and I remember Nellie. I start to scream again, the last member of my family is dead. Tears spill from my eyes and land on the yellow comforter.

Rage seizes me and I throw off the comforter and walk into my living room. I yank the book out from the shelf that I put Nellie's flowers in take them all out. I line up the six flowers on the table in front of my couch and stare at them. My family is dead. Snow got his revenge. I pick up the first one. "Good bye, Father," I say as I crumple the now papery flower into shredded bits.

"Goodbye, Mother," I keep going, destroying Mother, Freesia, Steel, and his wife's flowers.

Nellie's flower is the only one remaining. Sobs rack my body as I hold it in my hands. I've fallen so far already, and the district has forgotten me. What else is left? The tears continue down my face as I look at the pretty pink flower. I'm alone.

And then I crush Nellie's flower.

"Aurora, calm down! You haven't been this hysterical since you killed that boy from District-," I whip my head around and see that Tansy is trying to calm me down.

"Don't mention that again! The Capitol killed my family, they killed all of them!" I scream.

Tansy blinks back tears and gives me a hug, "I know, Aurora, I know."

"Everybody's gone, Tansy," I sink into a heap on the floor and cry into the dark colored carpet, "H-how did they get her down to the tracks? She knows not to get close to them."

"One of her friends, Minerva, was able to escape the train. She said that a peacekeeper asked them to help identify someone they caught stealing since they wouldn't reveal their name. She told me that they had to cross the tracks to get to the peacekeeper's headquarters and they were supposed to wait until the train was done going by. But the accident happened. The peacekeeper made it out, but someone said that he was about to be moved to District Four tomorrow and it was his last day here."

"The Capitol knows that I've figured them out! They're moving that blasted peacekeeper to keep him safe! He was part of the bloody plot to break me. They made up the whole story just to get their revenge, and at the expense of other innocent children that weren't even related to me," I continue to sob and grab a pillow off of the couch to cry into, "I-I just want to be alone."

Tansy gives me a small hug, "Track and I will be in the kitchen if you need us. And we're affected by Nellie's death too, Aurora. She wasn't related to us, but she was almost family."

I sniff and nod my head as she gets up and walks back into the kitchen. And then I bolt for Track's home. I know he has morphling somewhere, and I need to get rid of this pain somehow. My head and heart tell me not to, that I'll regret it. Nellie wouldn't want me on it. But I do it. I fall even further into a downward spiral.

* * *

The blood spills from my chest where the monkey mutt plunged its claws into me. I've fallen so far since Nellie's death. I immediately regretted taking the morphling like I knew I would, and Tansy was working on getting me into a rehabilitation program; but now there's no chance getting into one since I'm dying.

Besides, nobody remembers me at home, just how I wanted it. Ever since my niece was killed, I never left my house unless it was an emergency. Everything was calmer and I could mourn in peace. Calvin and Snow returned to me in my nightmares frequently, and I was all alone in the house, with nobody to cheer me up. Track would have helped more, but Tansy says that the morphling's fried his brain.

I ignored Nellie. She was still alive in my heart, and I shut out her voice. No, it wasn't just her voice, it was all of my family's voices. They wouldn't ever want me to be in this condition. And I should have listened to them, all it's gotten me is sickness and isolation. I thought I wanted to be forgotten, to have peace. But it's a lonely life, and one without happiness.

I look up at the pink sky, gasping for breathe. Peeta, is talking to me about painting, trying to comfort me in my last moments. Katniss looks like she's trying to decide what to do. They're both going to save Panem, I just know it. I know how cruel the Capitol is, they need to take it down for all of us that have suffered because of it.

The Capitol made me suffer another blow when Track was murdered in the bloodbath, courtesy of District 1. Tansy's all that's left, and she's aging fast. Track and I were both supposed to protect those two from Twelve, and I've fulfilled my duty. I saved Peeta's life, and hopefully a rebellion can start now, hopefully the districts can begin to come together. I know that a revolt is brewing.

Both Katniss and Peeta look concerned. I dip my finger into my blood and reach up, painting one of Nellie's flowers on Peeta's cheek. She would have wanted me to. "It's beautiful," He says.

Satisfied, I smile weakly and close my eyes. I remember when I crushed the last dead flower for my dear niece, and how destroying it was when I shut out her - no, their - voices. But I finally listened to them, and now I will no longer be fallen or forgotten.


End file.
